Bratwurst is a centuries-old meat sausage that originates from the German regions of Europe. The word bratwurst itself derives from two German words, the first term being a debated split between the words brät, meaning "finely chopped meat" or braten, meaning "to fry" and the second part -wurst, meaning "sausage." The meat in bratwurst is usually Pork, Beef, and sometimes Veal, commonly with an assorted mix of spices.
The methods of cooking and eating bratwurst remains largely unchanged. The sausage itself has been, and still is, commonly served on a bread roll or a bun. Bratwurst is usually grilled, and is many times boiled in broth or beer before grilling, and is commonly consumed with beer.
American
The Bratwurst came across to the United States with the German immigrants, where the art of sausage making became a prospective business field in the more predominantly German-American concentrated areas of the U.S, namely in the Northern Midwest, particularly in the state of Wisconsin.
The making of sausage has been a working business for the better part of two hundred years in Wisconsin, carrying the bratwurst with it. One of the earliest known sausage businesses is the Little Pig Sausage business in Fort Atkinson, which began in the 1830's. Many other companies would emerge over time, the most prevalent of them being the Usinger's sausage company, founded in 1880 in Milwaukee, and Johnsonville Sausage, founded in 1945 in Johnsonville in Sheboygan Falls. Johnsonville Sausage remains today the largest sausage and bratwurst manufacturer in the United States.
Major Brat Festivals of Wisconsin
Brat Fries are one of the largest and most popular forms of community gatherings in Wisconsin. Whether it’s a small family get-together or a county-wide community gathering, brat fries are huge part of Wisconsin’s culture and tradition. Brat fries have become such a staple in the Wisconsinite lifestyle that many nationally known annual brat fries have been established.
-Sheboygan Brat Days
Overview
One of the largest and most well known major brat fries in Wisconsin is Sheboygan’s very own Brat Days festival. The event is sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage and takes place annually on the first Saturday of August. The festival is held in Sheboygan’s Kiwanis Park and often times expands to include surrounding areas as well. The festival includes various forms of entertainment such as live music, carnival rides, and even a brat eating contest.
History
The first unofficial Brat Days fest was held in 1953 in the downtown area of Sheboygan. After being held for 13 years, the festival was discontinued due to fact that downtown Sheboygan couldn't accommodate the enormous quantity of attendees. In 1978 the festival was brought back and has continued to run annually ever since.
Festivities/Entertainment
Throughout the years festivities and entertainment at Brat Days has varied, however, some aspects remain unchanged and appear at the festival year after year. Examples of these recurring events are live music/performance, carnival rides, and the “Brat Trot.”
Brat Days usually provides a plethora of musical performances and genres. At a typical Brat Days fest one can almost certainly expect to hear a polka band due to the German and Polish background of the Wisconsin community. Other typical genres heard at Brat Days are 50’s style rockabilly, and more recently, 70’s and 80’s classic rock. These latter two genres may have been added in order to appeal to the baby boomer and middle-aged audiences, a very large percentage of the Sheboygan community.
There are also many forms of entertainment for the children that attend. Carnival rides are almost always present at Brat Days. These often times include a Ferris wheel, bounce house, and fun slides. In addition to carnival rides, there is often a petting zoo with pony and camel rides. Clowns are also usually present to entertain the children.
The Brat Trot has also become a staple of Brat Days. The Brat Trot is a 4-mile run/ 2 mile walk that has accompanied Brat Days since 1984. It is started at the Sports Core facility in Kohler and ends at Kiwanis Park, the location of Brat Days. All the proceeds from the Brat Trot go to the American Diabetes Association to find a cure for diabetes.
Community and Cultural Significance
Although many people see Brat Days only as an event used to enjoy the outdoors, eat and drink, and have a good time, there is much more significance to the event than that. First off, it's very valuable to the community. The event helps unite the town and surrounding areas and gives it a sense of identity. Everyone who attends the festival is part of one big folk group. By analyzing these attendees, it really gives us a sense of who we are and what we value as a community. The festival also benefits the community in a more tangible way; through monetary gains. Much of the proceeds of Brat Days get put right back into the community of Sheboygan to help fund local scholarships, upkeep local parks, and create programs at the Sheboygan YMCA. As for the money that doesn't go to charitable foundations and other spending, it still benefits the community. All the incoming patrons from other areas of the state or country all come here to Sheboygan county and spend money, thus greatly stimulating our local economy.
Aside from the community benefits, there are also numerous cultural benefits. By continuing a festival that is centered around bratwurst, a HUGE part of our European culture, we are keeping that culture alive. Not only are we keeping the culture alive, but we are also evolving it and pushing it forward, allowing our past culture to fuse with some more modernized traditions such as the brat eating contest and the relatively new tradition of the Brat Trot. The continuity of the festival allows us to celebrate our roots and at the same time enjoy ourselves, a task that is often times impossible.
-The "World's Largest" Bratfest
Overview
The self proclaimed "World's Largest Brat Fest" is an annual event that takes place Memorial Day weekend. This event is also sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage. The event takes place in the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It is commonplace for attendees at the event to be from as far away as Germany and Poland. Like Brat Days, this event also has entertainment such as live music and rides.
History
The "World's Largest" Bratfest began in 1983. It was started as a community based event meant to raise money for charities that participated in the event. Currently, the festival is still based on the original idea of fund raising, but has grown far beyond that. Since its beginnings in '83, the festival has raised over $572,000 for it's charities and organizations.
World Records
The "World's Largest" Bratfest is known for being the record holder for "Most Brats Consumed." It has become tradition that every year, the attendees try to break the previous years record for eating brats. In 2008, the festival set a new world record with 191,712 brats consumed in the festivals 4 day span. The festival has also broken other world records such as "Most Brats Consumed per Minute," "Most Sauerkraut Consumed," and "Most Ketchup Consumed." For a complete list of stats from the 2008 "World's Largest" Bratfest festival, click this link: http://www.bratfest.com/bratstats.php
Community Significance
The "World's Largest" Bratfest is one of Wisconsin's largest charitable events. The proceeds of the event go to various community programs, charities, and organizations. This obviously has a HUGE impact on the community. It gives citizens a chance to give back to their local neighborhoods while enjoying themselves and getting to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only is the monetary gain important, but the social factor as well. Because nearly all of the stands and grills are operated by the same charities that are receiving benefits, the attendees get an opportunity to hear about what the charities, organizations, etc. are planning on using the funding for. This give the attendees/citizens a sense of belonging in that they can see exactly where their purchases/donations are going and how they will better the community they live in.
Types of Brat Fries
There are several different types of bratfries which can be distinguished by their purpose and the events linked by purpose also share other qualities. Three major categories of brat fries are Fundraisers, Communal brat fries and, Family Brat Fries.
Fundraisers
Fundraisers are distinguished by the purpose of raising money for a cause. The people that run these event range from church members to high school students. One of the major reasons that groups would choose to do a bratfry fundraisers is due to the incredible popularity of bratwurst in Wisconsin because of its German and Polish background. Many fundraisers are small events that take place outside of grocery stores, car washes, and in parks. The standard setup is a small booth and 2-3 people working to prepare the brats. It is quite a common site in Sheboygan once the weather starts getting warmer.
Communal Brat fries
Communal Brat fries have a purpose of socializing as a community. This does not necessarily have to be a geographical community like a neighborhood but can also be defined as any group that shares a common focus. These sorts of events can be a non fund raising church event where everyone can come to hang out and generally have a good time. One can also see this at tailgating parties where a bunch of people linked by the fact that the cheer for the same sports team socializes and prepares for the actual event with the brat fry only being a warm up. Family Brat fries
Family Brat fries tend to be the smallest events since they usually only consist of family members with the inclusion of significant others and close friends that are considered part of the family. These events can often times be planned on very short notice with people only finding out 1 or 2 days in advance. Generally each person or group that comes will bring something to contribute either in food or beverage. This is also the type of brat fry that is most likely to deviate from the norm of what is supposed to be included at a brat fry. Because it is only the family there is no outside pressure to conform to societies norms. It is often at this sort of event that a family will demonstrate their ethnic background as well as showing their "American" style of social gathering.
Fieldwork and Analysis
Its 3pm on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon at Evergreen Park. I am observing the Prescott family have their traditional Mother’s Day brat fry which they say they have been doing for the past decade. The group is made of just family members and no friends or unknown individual besides me. The Prescott family is in the midst of their brat fry. The grand father is in the middle of cooking brats, brat patties, hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill. The grandfather stated, “That for the most part within every brat fry it tends to be the man that usually cooks the food outside on a grill.” Everyone else was either socializing or listening to a variety of music from classic rock to rap. The guys seemed to talk amongst themselves and the same thing came to the women. It’s as if within this group there were subdivisions within the group. Women talked to women, men with men and kids with kids usually around their own age. The younger kids were usually running around enjoying themselves while the older kids sat at the benches socializing amongst themselves. Many of the family members talked to me about how they prepared their different side foods. For example one of them actually gave me the recipe for their family potato salad.
While everyone was socializing, I took a look at all the things that they may be placing on their food. They have onions, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, yellow and brown mustard, relish, pickles, cheese and mayonnaise and different buns to go along with the different choices of meat. Along with that they had various salads, chips, drinks mostly consisting of different sodas and beer, different fresh fruits and to top everything off corn on the cob. Everyone was pretty much talking to everyone about their lives, work, school, and tons of other topics. Once the food was all done being cooked, everyone got around the table and began digging into a little bit of everything. Everyone was filling their plates and stuffing their faces. By the end it seemed like everyone was stuffed. The food was delicious in my opinion. The different side foods were actually very good. The family potato salad was amazing. After the meal, everyone sat around and waited for their stomachs to settle in order to begin playing soccer and volleyball or head home after their meal. During this period it was pretty much another social hour. Everyone started up talking again about whatever topics they were previously talking about. Once everyone seemed like their stomachs were settled everyone joined on playing several games of soccer and volleyball.
By 5pm the family began to pack everything up, and pack all the leftover food. They took the net down that they used to play volleyball. One of the family members stated that “They hope it's like this again next year. The weather was perfect for a family get together even though it seemed like we were the only ones having a brat fry.” In the end the family said their goodbyes and went around hugging one another before they left to their next location. By the end of the event, this was a perfect example of a family brat fry. Everyone was together enjoying each others presence and socializing. Everyone was enjoying the food that was either cooked there or brought to the event. This goes to show that family brat fries are a great way to bring the family together.
*I’m sorry to state that there were no pictures taken at the event due to the fact that my camera’s batteries failed and I didn’t have time to go back and recharge them. So I apologize for that.
---Brat Fries and Brats as Foodways---
History of the Bratwurst
Bratwurst is a centuries-old meat sausage that originates from the German regions of Europe. The word bratwurst itself derives from two German words, the first term being a debated split between the words brät, meaning "finely chopped meat" or braten, meaning "to fry" and the second part -wurst, meaning "sausage." The meat in bratwurst is usually Pork, Beef, and sometimes Veal, commonly with an assorted mix of spices.The methods of cooking and eating bratwurst remains largely unchanged. The sausage itself has been, and still is, commonly served on a bread roll or a bun. Bratwurst is usually grilled, and is many times boiled in broth or beer before grilling, and is commonly consumed with beer.
American
The Bratwurst came across to the United States with the German immigrants, where the art of sausage making became a prospective business field in the more predominantly German-American concentrated areas of the U.S, namely in the Northern Midwest, particularly in the state of Wisconsin.The making of sausage has been a working business for the better part of two hundred years in Wisconsin, carrying the bratwurst with it. One of the earliest known sausage businesses is the Little Pig Sausage business in Fort Atkinson, which began in the 1830's. Many other companies would emerge over time, the most prevalent of them being the Usinger's sausage company, founded in 1880 in Milwaukee, and Johnsonville Sausage, founded in 1945 in Johnsonville in Sheboygan Falls. Johnsonville Sausage remains today the largest sausage and bratwurst manufacturer in the United States.
Major Brat Festivals of Wisconsin
Brat Fries are one of the largest and most popular forms of community gatherings in Wisconsin. Whether it’s a small family get-together or a county-wide community gathering, brat fries are huge part of Wisconsin’s culture and tradition. Brat fries have become such a staple in the Wisconsinite lifestyle that many nationally known annual brat fries have been established.-Sheboygan Brat Days
Overview
One of the largest and most well known major brat fries in Wisconsin is Sheboygan’s very own Brat Days festival. The event is sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage and takes place annually on the first Saturday of August. The festival is held in Sheboygan’s Kiwanis Park and often times expands to include surrounding areas as well. The festival includes various forms of entertainment such as live music, carnival rides, and even a brat eating contest.History
The first unofficial Brat Days fest was held in 1953 in the downtown area of Sheboygan. After being held for 13 years, the festival was discontinued due to fact that downtown Sheboygan couldn't accommodate the enormous quantity of attendees. In 1978 the festival was brought back and has continued to run annually ever since.Festivities/Entertainment
Throughout the years festivities and entertainment at Brat Days has varied, however, some aspects remain unchanged and appear at the festival year after year. Examples of these recurring events are live music/performance, carnival rides, and the “Brat Trot.”Brat Days usually provides a plethora of musical performances and genres. At a typical Brat Days fest one can almost certainly expect to hear a polka band due to the German and Polish background of the Wisconsin community. Other typical genres heard at Brat Days are 50’s style rockabilly, and more recently, 70’s and 80’s classic rock. These latter two genres may have been added in order to appeal to the baby boomer and middle-aged audiences, a very large percentage of the Sheboygan community.
There are also many forms of entertainment for the children that attend. Carnival rides are almost always present at Brat Days. These often times include a Ferris wheel, bounce house, and fun slides. In addition to carnival rides, there is often a petting zoo with pony and camel rides. Clowns are also usually present to entertain the children.
The Brat Trot has also become a staple of Brat Days. The Brat Trot is a 4-mile run/ 2 mile walk that has accompanied Brat Days since 1984. It is started at the Sports Core facility in Kohler and ends at Kiwanis Park, the location of Brat Days. All the proceeds from the Brat Trot go to the American Diabetes Association to find a cure for diabetes.
Community and Cultural Significance
Although many people see Brat Days only as an event used to enjoy the outdoors, eat and drink, and have a good time, there is much more significance to the event than that. First off, it's very valuable to the community. The event helps unite the town and surrounding areas and gives it a sense of identity. Everyone who attends the festival is part of one big folk group. By analyzing these attendees, it really gives us a sense of who we are and what we value as a community. The festival also benefits the community in a more tangible way; through monetary gains. Much of the proceeds of Brat Days get put right back into the community of Sheboygan to help fund local scholarships, upkeep local parks, and create programs at the Sheboygan YMCA. As for the money that doesn't go to charitable foundations and other spending, it still benefits the community. All the incoming patrons from other areas of the state or country all come here to Sheboygan county and spend money, thus greatly stimulating our local economy.
Aside from the community benefits, there are also numerous cultural benefits. By continuing a festival that is centered around bratwurst, a HUGE part of our European culture, we are keeping that culture alive. Not only are we keeping the culture alive, but we are also evolving it and pushing it forward, allowing our past culture to fuse with some more modernized traditions such as the brat eating contest and the relatively new tradition of the Brat Trot. The continuity of the festival allows us to celebrate our roots and at the same time enjoy ourselves, a task that is often times impossible.
-The "World's Largest" Bratfest
Overview
The self proclaimed "World's Largest Brat Fest" is an annual event that takes place Memorial Day weekend. This event is also sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage. The event takes place in the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It is commonplace for attendees at the event to be from as far away as Germany and Poland. Like Brat Days, this event also has entertainment such as live music and rides.History
The "World's Largest" Bratfest began in 1983. It was started as a community based event meant to raise money for charities that participated in the event. Currently, the festival is still based on the original idea of fund raising, but has grown far beyond that. Since its beginnings in '83, the festival has raised over $572,000 for it's charities and organizations.World Records
The "World's Largest" Bratfest is known for being the record holder for "Most Brats Consumed." It has become tradition that every year, the attendees try to break the previous years record for eating brats. In 2008, the festival set a new world record with 191,712 brats consumed in the festivals 4 day span. The festival has also broken other world records such as "Most Brats Consumed per Minute," "Most Sauerkraut Consumed," and "Most Ketchup Consumed." For a complete list of stats from the 2008 "World's Largest" Bratfest festival, click this link: http://www.bratfest.com/bratstats.phpCommunity Significance
The "World's Largest" Bratfest is one of Wisconsin's largest charitable events. The proceeds of the event go to various community programs, charities, and organizations. This obviously has a HUGE impact on the community. It gives citizens a chance to give back to their local neighborhoods while enjoying themselves and getting to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only is the monetary gain important, but the social factor as well. Because nearly all of the stands and grills are operated by the same charities that are receiving benefits, the attendees get an opportunity to hear about what the charities, organizations, etc. are planning on using the funding for. This give the attendees/citizens a sense of belonging in that they can see exactly where their purchases/donations are going and how they will better the community they live in.Types of Brat Fries
There are several different types of bratfries which can be distinguished by their purpose and the events linked by purpose also share other qualities. Three major categories of brat fries are Fundraisers, Communal brat fries and, Family Brat Fries.Fundraisers
Fundraisers are distinguished by the purpose of raising money for a cause. The people that run these event range from church members to high school students. One of the major reasons that groups would choose to do a bratfry fundraisers is due to the incredible popularity of bratwurst in Wisconsin because of its German and Polish background. Many fundraisers are small events that take place outside of grocery stores, car washes, and in parks. The standard setup is a small booth and 2-3 people working to prepare the brats. It is quite a common site in Sheboygan once the weather starts getting warmer.Communal Brat fries
Communal Brat fries have a purpose of socializing as a community. This does not necessarily have to be a geographical community like a neighborhood but can also be defined as any group that shares a common focus. These sorts of events can be a non fund raising church event where everyone can come to hang out and generally have a good time. One can also see this at tailgating parties where a bunch of people linked by the fact that the cheer for the same sports team socializes and prepares for the actual event with the brat fry only being a warm up.Family Brat fries
Family Brat fries tend to be the smallest events since they usually only consist of family members with the inclusion of significant others and close friends that are considered part of the family. These events can often times be planned on very short notice with people only finding out 1 or 2 days in advance. Generally each person or group that comes will bring something to contribute either in food or beverage. This is also the type of brat fry that is most likely to deviate from the norm of what is supposed to be included at a brat fry. Because it is only the family there is no outside pressure to conform to societies norms. It is often at this sort of event that a family will demonstrate their ethnic background as well as showing their "American" style of social gathering.
Fieldwork and Analysis
Its 3pm on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon at Evergreen Park. I am observing the Prescott family have their traditional Mother’s Day brat fry which they say they have been doing for the past decade. The group is made of just family members and no friends or unknown individual besides me. The Prescott family is in the midst of their brat fry. The grand father is in the middle of cooking brats, brat patties, hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill. The grandfather stated, “That for the most part within every brat fry it tends to be the man that usually cooks the food outside on a grill.” Everyone else was either socializing or listening to a variety of music from classic rock to rap. The guys seemed to talk amongst themselves and the same thing came to the women. It’s as if within this group there were subdivisions within the group. Women talked to women, men with men and kids with kids usually around their own age. The younger kids were usually running around enjoying themselves while the older kids sat at the benches socializing amongst themselves. Many of the family members talked to me about how they prepared their different side foods. For example one of them actually gave me the recipe for their family potato salad.While everyone was socializing, I took a look at all the things that they may be placing on their food. They have onions, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, yellow and brown mustard, relish, pickles, cheese and mayonnaise and different buns to go along with the different choices of meat. Along with that they had various salads, chips, drinks mostly consisting of different sodas and beer, different fresh fruits and to top everything off corn on the cob. Everyone was pretty much talking to everyone about their lives, work, school, and tons of other topics. Once the food was all done being cooked, everyone got around the table and began digging into a little bit of everything. Everyone was filling their plates and stuffing their faces. By the end it seemed like everyone was stuffed. The food was delicious in my opinion. The different side foods were actually very good. The family potato salad was amazing. After the meal, everyone sat around and waited for their stomachs to settle in order to begin playing soccer and volleyball or head home after their meal. During this period it was pretty much another social hour. Everyone started up talking again about whatever topics they were previously talking about. Once everyone seemed like their stomachs were settled everyone joined on playing several games of soccer and volleyball.
By 5pm the family began to pack everything up, and pack all the leftover food. They took the net down that they used to play volleyball. One of the family members stated that “They hope it's like this again next year. The weather was perfect for a family get together even though it seemed like we were the only ones having a brat fry.” In the end the family said their goodbyes and went around hugging one another before they left to their next location. By the end of the event, this was a perfect example of a family brat fry. Everyone was together enjoying each others presence and socializing. Everyone was enjoying the food that was either cooked there or brought to the event. This goes to show that family brat fries are a great way to bring the family together.
*I’m sorry to state that there were no pictures taken at the event due to the fact that my camera’s batteries failed and I didn’t have time to go back and recharge them. So I apologize for that.
Sources:
World's Largest Brat Fest. May 2009. Johnsonville. Metcalfe's. 10 May 2009 <http://www.bratfest.com/index.php>.
Brat Days 2009. 2009. Sheboygan Jaycees. Tech by Design. 10 May 2009 <http://www.bratdays.org/>.
Fire Up the Grill! Aug. 2005. Madison. Wisconsin Historical Society. 11 May 2009 <http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/highlights/archives/2005/08/fire_up_the_gri.asp>